As I look back over the many decades of my life it appears as a magical mystery tour. There have been so many roads traveled and less traveled that I’m wondering if life might simply be a dream. How about you? When you look into your life’s many moments, what do you see and experience? Do you see the many mysteries you tripped over, walked into and hid from? Can you see the many mysteries that opened up to you, that you creatively engaged fearfully, boldly and fearlessly? Within this aliveness do you notice a creative mystery flowing through it all?

My life experience has shown me that most of us don’t recognize the amazing creative Self that lives within us. The cultural conditioning we are raised with hides, represses and denies the artist within which results in all kinds of disfunction for ourselves and our communities. Even though each of us is born as a unique artistic creation, it’s rare that we reach adulthood with an appreciation of this individual and collective gift. As a psychotherapist almost everyone I worked with had a deep underlying issue of what I came to call ‘The rejected artist syndrome.’

When we don’t know who we are in our depths because of alternative programming we can count on being frustrated, despondent, angry, demanding, indifferent, destructive and unhappy. When we find our true authentic creative Self, these emotions seem to dissolve. The mystery within each of us is that we are co-creators with the Great Creating. Until we accept and embrace this mysterious fact of life, we walk around in circles of difficulty because we don’t know who we are at our core.Without a true center we’re always off balance, internally unstable.

Does any of this resonate with you? Do you know your inner artist? Are you aware of your true authentic creative Self? Are you living within the deep peace that surpasses all understanding or are you still struggling to find that peace, embrace it and reside within it as it resides in you? Where’s your center and what ushers you into it? What experiences in your life can you recall that facilitated the serenity that your True Self knows, that your inner childlike artist knows? Take a deep breath, relax your shoulders and drop into this inner relaxed serene space.

STOP. . . Turn around and go back to the last sentence. This is now an artist date and for your sake, take the deep breath, relax and drop into the calm center of your being. Feel the rhythm of your breath, the activity of your mind. Stay here until you feel the flow of the moment. This is an awareness of the mystery that keeps you alive. Now become aware of your pulse. Rest in this rhythm of breath and heart. This mystery of life is also the mystery of your creative Self. If you want to live life free, awaken to this space and see. Experience this Mystery… Here, now…

Where are you? Are you still reading along looking for some new intellectual information or are you breathing in the mystery of your inner artist? Is there a conversation here between the splits in your personality and the soulful mystery of your creative Self? Are you beginning to see that there’s more than one self residing in you? Can you reconnect to that little girl or boy that you were? Are you still aware of her, him? Is this reading causing you some comfort or discomfort? Who is the Who that’s Truly You? How much attention are giving this mystery?

Sometimes I feel like a stranger in a strange land as I sense the new awakenings in this second half of life. It’s almost as if I’ve been sleep walking, just going along with the crowd and not giving the appropriate attention to my artist, my inner creative Self. I’ve been so wrapped up in my own cultural conditioning and playing the straight laced game that in my resistance I’ve been deaf to the cries of my little boy who longs for the wide open spaces and the grace of unfettered embraces. Maybe I’m finally accepting that life is founded in mystery.

It seems we must experiment with what works for us over time and not be afraid of what anyone thinks about it. Francis Bacon said: “The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.” Albert Einstein chimed in with: “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.” Ralph Waldo Emerson put the cherry on top of all this by saying: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” This speaks volumes for us to dive deeply into life’s mystery to discover the co-creativity within!

By this time you’ve either checked out, are wondering what you’re still doing here or catching a glimpse of your inner creative Self through the resonance of these words. I hope it’s the latter as I want us all to discover the mystery of life that flows inside, outside, around and through us. I want us all to wake up to our inner children, our creative artist selves and liberate the constrictive lives we’ve all lived to enter the joy of our co-creative birth-rights. The mystery of our creative selves is a process of transformation. It’s a conscious awareness of the Great Creating nudging us all to wake up, to embrace the mystery of our own creativity, to be free. . .

• Go back to the paragraph that starts with STOP. Walk through this exercise again and again until it starts walking you. . . Feel the flow of the moment, the mystery of your creative Self. . .
• Sometime today or tomorrow take out your journal. At the top of the page write: Dialogue with my creative Self, inner artist. Then start writing and keep writing until you’ve filled at least one page in your journal. This is a concrete way of getting in touch with this lost part of your Self. Let comes what comes. Don’t edit, judge, dismiss, correct or otherwise get your calculative mind involved. Allow your inner artist/child to speak her/his truth and listen deeply. There’s a profound message here for you. Listen and follow….Allow the new to be birthed through you….
• While you’re journaling at this time or another, imagine with your creative Self how you might begin to bring more of this part of you out into the world……..Remember, it’s a process. Little by little you’ll accomplish much as the energy grows and flows……Enjoy. Have fun. Play. . .